The Nation Newspaper

Tag: politics

  • Politics of secondary education (1)

    To this extent, nine years of basic education may not be enough to prepare citizens for the complexity of modern and postmodern society.

    When all the talents in society are not fully developed, it is not the individuals that are adversely affected alone who suffer; the society as a whole suffers as well. Now, granting that every Nigerian is given an opportunity to develop his talents, it is imperative that he should also be given an opportunity to employ these developed talents….— Obafemi Awolowo
    Man is the sole dynamic in nature; and accordingly, every individual constitutes the supreme economic potential which a country possesses. It is axiomatic that man can create nothing. But, by an intelligent and purposive application of the exertions of his body and mind, he can exploit natural resources to produce goods and service….. Therefore, other things being equal, the healthier his body and the more educated his mind, the greater will be his morale and the more efficient he becomes as a producer and consumer .—Obafemi Awolowo

    The short statement by President Buhari after returning from his treatment in the United Kingdom: “My single advice is that we must take education seriously, and we must do much more to educate our children,” captures the essence of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s description in the quotations above about the value of education, which is also the theme of today’s piece: Imperative of expansion and improvement of access to good public education for citizens of Nigeria.

    The John Tosho verdict which inspired the last two columns pertained to the nine years of what governments in Nigeria call Basic Education. According to Tosho’s judgement, it is only the years of Basic Education that are constitutionally free and compulsory for all citizens within the school age. But this writer believes that the confusion between Basic education and the remaining three years of pre-tertiary education called senior secondary should be a matter of debate or conversation. This conversation is vital in view of President Buhari’s growing love for education of the masses of our people, aptly captured in his advice that ‘we take education seriously. All things being equal, pioneers of Universal Basic Education (UBE) under former President Obasanjo should be in high school by now. Most of them, except those in the old Western Region are likely to be paying school fees, if they enroll in post-UBE schools and probably on the street selling all manners of imported odds and ends, if they are unable to pay required fees for the three years of senior secondary.

    It has been argued by sociologists of education that Obasanjo must have left out the senior secondary years for reasons of cost management and with the hope that subsequent governments would find it logical to extend basic education to cover three years of high school for UBE foundation students. But the importance of education today is too overwhelming for any public affairs commentator to engage in hair-splitting arguments about what Obasanjo thought, did not think, or could have done to remove the illogicality in providing free public education for nine years, charging fees for three years of high school, and then offering free tuition at the university level.

    In view of radical changes in respect of means of acquiring, transferring, and storing information and with respect to the mercurial nature of the character of work in response to mind-bending advances in science and technology, many countries are reforming or considering reforming their education in compliance with new realities. Even though the country’s leaders have talked citizens to stupor about reforming education, particularly at annual release of WAEC and NECO examination results, no noticeable effort has been made since the unearthing of Obasanjo’s UBE reform. Talk of education reform has been one of promise and failure for the past 10 years of post-military governance.

    But President Buhari’s inspiring message about the importance of education to the survival of Nigeria shows why Nigeria should not continue to promise and fail on reform of education in terms of expansion of access and improvement of quality of public education. For a country that is projected to become the 4th or 5th largest in the world in the next twenty years, it will be very foolish to play the ostrich game on matters of educating the millions of mouths to feed, bodies to protect from or cure of diseases, to transport, clothe, and protect from vagaries of nature and culture, etc.

    As the human world becomes more complex, so will the business of educating citizens for the future get more complicated than it has been. Such complexity will require more people with high-level literacy, numeracy, communication, and computer competence to respond to the new culture of work that is emerging. In this respect, it is not only those who want to earn university degrees that will need a good measure of these skills but also those that may choose to acquire skills from vocational colleges. To this extent, nine years of basic education may not be enough to prepare citizens for the complexity of modern and postmodern society. If Nigeria is not financially buoyant enough to provide free public education to citizens from pre-school to undergraduate level, like Germany or Scotland, to name a few, it should strive to provide free public education from Kindergarten to High School, thus needing to make the present three years of senior secondary free and compulsory, as it is in many countries including the United States of America, Finland, Brazil, to name a few. It is common knowledge that about 80% of graduates in the United States, the epicentre of private economy, are products of public education.

    Now that cultural and political leaders from various corners of the country, including sections that had been lukewarm about mass education for about half a century, recognise Awolowo’s point about the centrality of mass education to sustainable democratic polity and society, political and bureaucratic leaders should feel encouraged to think out of the box about the type of education that can push the country to sustainable development. Making education free and compulsory for all citizens in the school-age bracket is a good way to start thinking anew.

    Most countries that are doing well and have thus become models for our leaders in many respects do not abandon the education of citizens to the private sector. To do so is to create unequal societies of overlords and underclass, just as it is already in many states of the federation. Completion of high school, i.e. twelve years of schooling should be free and compulsory for every citizen wherever he/she may live within the country. I can almost hear those that obsess over five credits in WAEC or NECO scream for this page about loss of investment demonstrated by the gap each year between input and outcome in terms of percentage of students with mandatory five credits to enter universities. Education is not only about the number that can qualify for university admission; it is also about the number of persons that can benefit from exposure to the culture of learning. All the people who fail to obtain five credits are likely to be better in whatever career they choose than those with no opportunity for the three years of high school closed to millions of citizens because of tuition charges.

    There is no better way to end today’s piece than to quote from the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) recently released by the Federal Government in Section 5.2 on Education: “The shifts in the global economy, the emergence of new sectors and the digital revolution have changed the skills required of the work force. Nigeria has to reposition its education sector to prepare its young people to cope with the changing technological and economic environment. As things stand, limited access to basic education and science and technology courses coupled with insufficient capacity and sub-standard infrastructure at the tertiary level mean that the work force lacks the critical skills needed to develop the economy.”

    Next week will focus on how to make public education achieve its objectives of citizen empowerment and national development.

    To be continued

     

  • Prince Ayo Adedoyin goes into politics

    Kwara ‘big boy’, Prince Ayo Adeoyin, is one man who knows what he wants and how to go about getting it. The Agbamu, Kwara-born business mogul and one-time head of Peacegate Group, a company that specialises in offering professional services to the aviation, real estate, oil & gas, logistics and trading sector of the economy, has conquered the business world to his satisfaction. He has therefore set his sights on ruling a new terrain by joining politics. He has thrown his hat into the ring as one of those making moves to gun for the seat of power in Kwara State come 2019.

    Prince Adedoyin is the son of the foremost industrialist Chief Samuel Adedoyin. He was married to Oghogho Asemota before the union crashed. With a massive war chest, he has no financial constraints to prevent him from aiming for the Kwara top seat. He is currently engaged in covert and overt wooing, trying to bring the main political blocks in the state of harmony to his side. With the battle for 2019 gathering momentum, the handsome dude is high on confidence that his connections in the celebrity sphere, as well as his ties to the top players in several sectors of the economy will help him to capture the governorship ticket.

  • NDDC and the politics of regional integration

    NDDC and the politics of regional integration

    When the Niger Delta Masterplan was launched in 2007 by the then outgoing government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, it was meant to fast- track the development of the region, with a view to encouraging regional integration. Ten years after however, the dream appears far from being realised.
    Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba,(SAN), believes that now is the time to either come up with a new masterplan, or upgrade or review the old one launched by Obasanjo, if the agency must stop being seen as a competitor to the states in the region, in terms provision of infrastructures.
    Ndoma-Egba believes that the current approach to the NDDC’s budget, where states and host communities have no inputs into the policies and programmes of the agency would never bring development to the region, adding that instead it would perpetually put the NDDC in competition with states and local governments, a development, he noted, would be a “monumental distraction.”
    Rather than continue with the avoidable “distraction,” Ndoma-Egba, is advocating for the creation of a regional economy, with” identified drivers” that would be “youth friendly,” saying that “a motivated, educated and empowered youth remain the real resource of any nation, not oil or mineral resources.”
    He further said that an “ill motivated, uneducated and underpowered youth, on the other hand,” would be a “curse and danger to the nation. We therefore have a sacred responsibility to make our youth a real resource and a blessing to our region and country.”
    Drawing inspiration from the Act establishing the NDDC, especially section 7 (1) (b), which mandates the commission, to ‘conceive, plan and implement, in accordance with set rules and regulations, projects and programmes for the sustainable development of the Niger Delta area in the field of transportation including roads, jetties, waterways, health, education, employment industrialization, agriculture and fisheries, housing and urban development, water supply, electricity and telecommunications,’ the NDDC chairman, further said the “Act therefore envisages a diversified but integrated regional economy for the region.”
    And to him, endeavours like ICT, sports, the creative industry; agriculture and manufacturing supported by inter modal transportation, health, and education infrastructure, with adequate power supply, are largely youth friendly, which would help take the youths out of the streets, and engage them in productive ventures, which in the long run would make vandalisation of oil installations less attractive to the youths in the region.
    To him, infrastructure should be such that, it would link the region and facilitate commerce within the Niger Delta, while involving all and every stakeholder in the activities of the Commission, so as to give them sense of belonging, as well as make them own the projects.
    “We must encourage sustainable partnerships with all stakeholders and partners for the overall development, security and peace of the region. We will work to earn the confidence of stakeholders and partners. We do not demand or request their confidence; we will earn it through our honest work and single minded focus. To demonstrate our commitment, to achieve this, this board at its inaugural meeting created its committee on Partnerships for Sustainable Development. This is to underscore our determination to optimize these partnerships”, Ndoma-Egba, added.
    He was also oblivious of the fact that all the lofty objectives the commission set out to achieve would not be possible in an atmosphere of violence. To this end, he appealed to all militant groups in the region to stop violence and vandalisation of oil facilities in the area, saying the region could not be complaining of environmental pollution and at the same time being responsible for the spate of environmental degradation in the area, occasioned by vandalisation of oil installations.
    While insisting that the militant groups’ point of absence of development in the region has long been made, Ndoma-Egba believes strongly that, it was now time for the militant groups too to give peace a chance and allow the region to develop.
    “We need security and peace in the region. I had in my remarks at our inaugural board meeting posited that ‘we cannot complain about environmental pollution and degradation in the region and at the same time engage in activities like pipeline vandalisation and breaches that not only pollute and degrade the environment but also shield those who should bear responsibility for the sorry state of our environment from liability. All of us from the region must take responsibility for peace and security in our own interest and the interest of generations to come. All of us must be committed to the peace, security and prosperity of our region. It is our duty. ‘
    “I will continue to appeal to all militant groups to stop the breaches and vandalisation of oil facilities. Their point has long been made. Now they are inflicting injuries and suffering on themselves and our already hapless and helpless people. They should give us a chance to develop. We will continue to collaborate with the various security agencies to ensure peace in the region. We can only develop in a peaceful atmosphere and environment, “Ndoma-Egba, declared.

  • Osun politics beyond jokes, says APC

    Osun politics beyond jokes, says APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State yesterday described the political alliance of some parties, plotting to “wrest power” from the APC in 2018 as a “joke”.

    The ruling party said politics and governance in Osun State had gone beyond “jokes and wishful thinking”.

    In a statement by its Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, the party said promoters of the new alliance were political featherweight.

    It said: “In the last 16 years, these are people who have not been able to develop worthy ideas, talk less of having the capacity to achieve what Governor Rauf Aregbesola has accomplished in over six years.

    “Politicians who lack the ability to think out of the box and initiate progressive development cannot compete with the APC and Aregbesola.

    “Despite its low federal allocation, Osun still out-performs many states.

    “For the benefit of those who care about facts and figures, there are some states where workers have not been paid in seven months.

    “Osun State, therefore, cannot be worse off on that score as the new alliance uninformed leaders claim. How can such a collection of people and parties upstage a party like the APC in Osun?”

  • Ogun and politics of debt management

    ‘You will never get to your destination if you stop to throw stones at every dog that barks at You ‘
    —Winston Churchill

    Nigeria indeed is a unique nation blessed with unique and dynamic people.But it is thoroughly perplexing the way Nigerians perceive issue pertaining to credit facilities. We see every issue concerning obtaining loan or bond as another route to slavery and servitude. We view it from a very negative prism.
    Unfortunately, that perception is flawed. One of the keys to being financially successful is understanding when loans are a good solution for your situation. According to Wikipedia, a loan is when you receive money from a friend, bank or financial institution for future repayment of the principal, plus interest.
    Loan is a positive financial weapon of development, but due to the cash-and-carry nature of our economy, it is being seen as a weapon of bondage. In advanced world, loan is used as a good financial tool to fast-track development. Simply put, loan is using a money you don’t have to get what you need. In other words, it is using other people’s money to develop your people or your land to pay back at a later time.
    It accelerates development and downloads tomorrow today.This is why advanced economies of Japan and USA are on the fast-lane of development yet they rate among the highest global debtors. In Nigeria, Lagos rates highest in indebtedness.But has this indebtedness stalled the growth and development of Lagos State? Has it retarded the development of US or Japan? The answer is a resounding NO.
    Surely, Loans are never a good idea if you don’t possess the capacity to pay back within the required time frame or when it is not deployed judiciously. What must not be compromised by the citizenry is that the money so collected must be utilized on developmental projects. It must be used to work for the people.
    Indeed, it is like a man that took a credit facility to build a five-star hotel and he is to re-pay over a period of 10 years. Even if the man dies, the hotel will still be there for his children to see and enjoy from.
    What need to be consider when issues concerning accessing loan facility is being considered is: Does the man or government seeking for such facility has the capacity to pay back? Is the reason for such loan salutary? Are the people to administer the loan credible and would judicously utiise the fund?Those are the salient questions to consider and not political sentiments.
    In the case of Ogun State, the answer to the three posers is YES. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBC) recently rated Ogun as third nationally in terms of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) collection. In the report, the NBC, while assessing states for the duration of January to June 2016, rated Ogun just behind Lagos State and oil-rich Rivers State.
    According to the report, Ogun State, “with its internal resources has been positioned the third highest IGR among other Nigerian states. The state, within six months in 2016 generated revenue of N56.29 billion. Ogun made this increment from N10.84 billion in 2011.. “
    The report indicates that Ogun took a 500 percent leap from what used to be in 2011 to an olympian height in 2016. The import of such rating is that the state possesses the innate capacity to generate enough revenue to repay any financial indebtedness.
    Happily enough, the fund is being used for the people. Proof of shrewd and effective utilisation of the financial resources is evident. Eye-popping and ambitious infrastructural transformation is sprouting in several parts of the state. Millennia projects designed to position the state for the challenges of the 21 century are being executed.
    One of such is the construction of a 10-lane expressway which promises to launch Ogun into the big league of states with modern infrastructure. When completed, two lanes on either side of the expressway would be built with concrete and will be reserved for trucks and other heavy duty vehicles. The advantage of this is massive.It will reduce accident rate on the road as well as preserve the lifespan of the road.
    The expressway would also host the rail transport project being planned by the state government. The rail project is to connect the Federal Government rail line at Sagamu interchange. This will greatly reduce the travel time between Abeokuta and Lagos.
    When completed, the rail line will further ensure that more people can live in Abeokuta or Sagamu and work on the Lagos Island.
    This vision is also being complemented with the development of an array of housing estates located along the Abeokuta-Sagamu corridor. The benefit of such a single project could then best be imagined as it would further pump-up the adrenalin of the states high-flying IGR.
    The loan being sought by the government would assist in ensuring the completion of various projects scattered across the state such as the 35-kilometer Sango-ijoko-Akute-Alagbole-Ojodu road. Urban roads as well as Rural roads are equally to the considered.
    Interestingly, the managers of the state are not resting on their oars. The state today is the industrial Mecca of Nigeria having attracted over 120 new companies under six years with scores still on the queue waiting to come in.
    But really you won’t blame Nigerians for being skeptical when it comes to accessing loan facility. Many a government official had in the past obtained such facility only to divert it to pedestrian usage or simply siphon such fund.
    However, the case of Ogun State under Senator Ibikunle Amosun is different. Since he assumed office in 2011, he has made judicial utilisation of financial resources a priority. He has constructed over nine bridges and 400 kilometres of urban roads across the state.Indeed, he negotiated a singe-digit interest for the loan he seeks.

    •Balogun, is a media aide of Governor Amosun.

  • Global justice, politics and security

    It is apparent now that it is not an exaggeration to say that when the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold. This is very obvious in the way the people and nations of our world have reacted to the shocking election of tough talking new US President Donald Trump, and its aftermath. More ominously though, the cold has suddenly turned to a high fever in the way and manner the US president has introduced a new mode of policy announcement and formulation, via tweets, executive orders, dismissive hand gestures, and the new emphatic way of saying No, inherent in his famous statement – it won’t happen.

    From France, to the UK, to Japan and Nigeria, the world is dancing to the music or reeling from the pains of Donald Trump’s bold effort to live to his campaign promise of making America ‘great and safe again‘. This is a costly effort in terms human concern on migration, religion and terrorism which the new US president has roundly condemned as not the rationale for his migration orders to stop refugees from seven majority Muslim nations. Instead, Donald Trump asserts boldly as his lawyers will argue in US Courts right to the Supreme Court if necessary, that his motive for the migrants ban are security of the US and the protection of American lives from the rampage and bloodthirstiness of global terrorism. And let us face it there is no denying that terrorism specially Islamic militant terrorism has gone global and has fanned fear, mistrust and xenophobia in most communities of the world where, hitherto, people have lived in peace and quiet until the bloody advent of ISIS in the world at large and the Boko Haram in Nigeria.

    Whilst Donald Trump battles with the judiciary in the US in what I relish as a vintage test of the much vaunted sanctity of separation of powers and checks and balances, which are hallmarks of the American presidential system, it is obvious that the temple of justice is in for some pretty rough time from the abrasive and derogatory challenge and language of the new US president. Clearly Trump has the support of his party in the US Congress but the judges of the Courts of Appeal have liberal leanings and have justified that from their recent ruling not to lift the ban they have imposed on Trump’s migrant ban. Their argument in the ruling was that executive orders are not immune to judicial review.

    They also held that the US government has not produced evidence that aliens from the banned nations have committed terrorism on US soil. The three judges then agreed with the arguments of the states that brought the case that the freedoms of travel, separation of families and discrimination have been assailed by the ban and that is unconstitutional. Of course Trump has dismissed the ruling as political and has said he will win easily on appeal . This certainly showed that Trump is not the normal run of the mill US president. This is a litigious billionaire and businessman who is used to fighting for his rights in US courts and his new office can only sharpen and expand his proclivity for having his way in the courts of the US. Especially now that he is president and he has the unique and important opportunity of having his new US Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch confirmed into office.

    This will certainly tilt the balance of that court in favor of conservative values over the prevailing liberal judicial pronouncements of the last eight years. Let us now look at how the Trump style of leadership and formulation of policies have impacted some parts of the world. Starting with France there is happiness on the part of right wing leader of the National Front, Marie Le Pen, that Trump’s election will boost her chances of becoming France’s next president in presidential elections due this year.

    She has stated clearly that Brexit and Trump’s victory were a reflection of their electorate ‘s disenchantment with the establishment parties over their handling of migration issues in allowing in migrants fleeing wars in the Middle East, who because of their religion of Islam, are potential terrorists who cannot integrate easily into European societies. Le Pen’s party under her father was like an outcast party in France for most of the time. Now, however, the Party is the front runner against the Socialist Party of current President Francois Holland who was so unpopular that he did not seek his party’s nomination for re- election. In the UK the Speaker of the British Parliament went out of his way to announce in Parliament that he will not allow Donald Trump to speak in the British Parliament on his next visit to the UK, as the US president. Which is quite interesting given the mode of operation of the British Parliamentary system.

    The first reason given by the Speaker was that he is one of the key holders to the doors of Parliament, the prime law making institution of the UK. The other two reasons for denying the opportunity are racism and sexism on which grounds he found Trump unqualified to address the British Parliament . The Speaker went on to say that the right for any visitor to address the British Parliament is not automatic but earned. Which really to me is so much balderdash from this Speaker who should know better. This is because British Parliamentary democracy is driven by the cabinet system in which the party that wins the election runs the government on a day to day basis and the PM leads that same party in Parliament in making laws.

    The Speaker’s role is to moderate debates and discussion of issues brought by parties and MPs. I wonder what role a Speaker, in this case a self – confessed housekeeper, has to play in how the PM, a first amongst equal leader of the cabinet, has to play in the choice of who will address and not address the British Parliament. And what is the duty of the PM who has invited the US president on this occasion when the Speaker has usurped the role of the PM by closing the door on her invited guest?.

    I think and advise that this Speaker should be sent on an indefinite leave till the visit occurs and told in plain terms that a Speaker is like a referee and should not use a yellow card off the field especially when the game has not even started as he has so insolently done. With regard to Japan and Nigeria the news are a bit complicated and a sort of mixed grill. Japan’s PM Shinto Abe is to play golf this weekend with Donald Trump at a private golf club in the US. While in Nigeria, labor leaders seized the opportunity of the president’s absence due to sickness to protest against what they called poor governance, corruption and economic hardship of the Nigerian people.

    Both the Japanese PM round of golf with the American president and the labor union protests against economic hardship and corruption have economic undertones and I will treat them one after the other, starting with Japan. During his campaign, Trump had frightened the Japanese and other US allies in the Pacific by saying that they have the resources to shoulder their defences and the US will review the current policy of footing the bill on that account. Indeed, that made Japan’s PM the first world leader to visit Trump at his Towers before he was sworn in. In addition the Japanese had it rough with the Obama Administration which prosecuted Toyota, one of the corporate jewels of the Japanese motor industry for poor quality brake parts in the brands sold in the US and globally.

    The head of Toyota was summoned to the US and disgraced in a public grilling in the US senate. Toyota was prosecuted successfully on the matter by the US Justice Department, and paid a colossal amount in millions of dollars as fines. In addition the Japanese PM wants to discuss how some Japanese companies will manufacture goods and services in the US in support of the Trump campaign to create more jobs in the US and stop the globalization policy of outsourcing which takes American jobs offshore. So PM Abe of Japan is killing two birds with one stone as he plays golf with the US president.

    He is polishing Japan’s image on product quality and paving the way for smoother relations on US- Japanese defence and security in the Pacific. Which means he may have to soft pedal in taking on Trump on the golf course so that he [Trump] wins clearly which will certainly boost the objectives of the Japanese PM’s golf diplomacy. With Nigeria, the issue has to do with a case of when the cat is not around, mice will play. That is what the unions have done to a sick president who is away and that is not fair .

    Granted the recession is biting. But where were these union leaders when the government increased the price of fuel from 86 naira to the present 140 naira? No sensitive and caring labor leaders in a civilized world would wish that away and kow tow without expecting that workers would bear the brunt of the economic hardship from the multiplier effect of such a fuel increase. And that is precisely what is happening. Nigerian labor leaders therefore are just crying over spilt milk. When it is a fact of life that nothing can put split milk together again.

    To make matters worse for the unions they are condemning the fight against corruption and doing this behind the moving force of the anti corruption brigade who is the president who is away on sick leave. These union leaders have forgotten that there is no power vacuum in Aso Rock and they met more than their match in the Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo who told them there is no gain without pain and that corruption is endemic and ubiquitous in Nigeria including religion and the VP himself is a pastor. I think the VP who has become our Socrates or Chief Philosopher on defeating the biting recession was just telling the union leaders to let charity begin at home in the clean up of Nigeria and face reality because they were there when the same VP explained the fuel increase and they acquiesced. So who is fooling who on recession and the fight against corruption now? Once again, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Politics of figures in Kaduna

    Politics of figures in Kaduna

    DAYS after Ibrahim Yakubu, Vicar General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kafanchan, told the media last December that over 800 people in four local governments had been killed in Southern Kaduna as a result of Fulani herdsmen attacks, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) responded by disclosing that only 204 people in two local governments had lost their lives. The NEMA North West zonal Coordinator, Musa Ilella, identified the affected local governments as Kafanchan and Chikun LGAs, and the period of his report as October, November and December, 2016 and early January, 2017. According to him, “Four districts in Kafanchan LGA namely: Linte,Goska,Dangoma and Kafanchan town recorded 194 deaths; while Chikun LGA on the other hand recorded about 10 deaths, making a total of 204 so far.”
    The police were the first to rebut the Catholic Church’s figures. During a visit to a part of the affected areas, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris also disputed the Catholic Church’s figures, insisting that 808 people could not have died in the attacks. He, however, offered no statistics of his own, a ringing indictment that either the police did not compile figures when they should have, or that they deliberately refused to publish the figures in order not to give a true and probably worrisome picture of the macabre killings. Many in the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) think there is actually underreporting of the death toll.
    The Catholic Church, which had earlier reported the death toll as covering ‘the past weeks and months’, later clarified its position by indicating that the figure covered the entire period of the crisis when they began to compile figures. That period, the church said, covered 2011 to 2016, and it involved many communities in about four local governments. There was no indication whether its inability to give specific dates when it first addressed the press was an innocent act of omission or simply because they expected everyone to understand and make do with a general figure, for after all, a general figure of that magnitude was troubling enough.
    NEMA on its own, though a federal agency, inexplicably limited its compilation to only two local governments, when even by the admission of the governor of the affected state, Nasir el-Rufai, more than two local governments were embroiled in the crisis. NEMA offered neither excuse nor justification for restricting its study to only four months in a crisis that had been raging for years, nor yet a plausible excuse for limiting themselves to only a part of the affected areas when in fact they knew other areas affected by the attacks.
    Sadly, apart from the police which indefensibly gave no figures at all, Kaduna State itself offers no help whatsoever in that regard, whether estimated or authentic figures. The state perhaps does not think it important to keep a tab on the tragedy unfolding in a part of its jurisdiction. Or, worse still, both the police and the state do not think the exercise of compiling an accurate figure of the human and material losses was important. At least, until the Catholic Church gave their own figures, even NEMA, which is saddled with responding initially and immediately to crises wherever they may occur, did not also think it a part of their responsibilities to compile the necessary figures.
    The state government has also given indication that the crisis in Southern Kaduna is partly caused by dispute over grazing rights, reserves and routes. There were no figures to back their argument. Individuals and associations have, therefore, assumed the responsibility of producing figures of unproven accuracy. In one of such figures, the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) suggests that the state government unfairly proposed 180,000 hectares of grazing reserves in 16 places in the entire state, with Southern Kaduna expected to provide about 130,000 hectares of the reserves. They think this is an iniquitous plan to dispossess them of their lands, for once herdsmen settle in a place, according to them, there is always a tendency to claim the land.
    So far, nothing suggests that the government, whether at the federal or state level, is firmly in control of the crisis. The crisis needs both firmness and fairness to handle; and above all, the state also needs to operate from the position of knowledge. Neither Kaduna state nor the federal government has acquired any of the mentioned tools to settle a problem that is fast becoming intractable for its multitudinous interpretations.

  • Obaseki: Striking balance between politics and governance?

    Obaseki: Striking balance between politics and governance?

    There is disquiet in the Edo State All Progressive Congress (APC). Observers are watching with keen interest how Governor Godwin Obaseki will pilot the affairs of the party as the new leader of the party. His actions in the past two months have however, shown that it is no longer business as usual in terms of governance.

    His body language from the first day he assumed office was a message to political associates as he shunned many who had stormed the government house to celebrate his electoral victory.

    Obaseki had promised to separate party politics from governance. He said he would focus on governance because government has to work for politics to succeed. “Initially, We will emphasize more governance. Let us put in place a governance structure so that our political structure can survive and endure”.

    The question on the lips of many is how far can Obaseki strike a balance between providing political leadership and good governance? How many feet will he be ready to chop off like his predecessor did? Can he go against some party leaders who are perceived as demi-gods in the state?

    As his administration got close to 100 days, several actions have been taken that has endeared Obaseki to the people and showed that the governor is serious about not mixing governance with politics. On his first day in office, Obaseki shunned family members and political associates who had visited government house for celebration. Many supporters who had hoped for immediate appointment were disappointed as they were turned back at the gate.

    Not many believed Obaseki would be true to his words when he said that he would stop all illegal levies and taxes being paid by market women and commercial drivers as well as the operation of private tax collectors on behalf of the state and local government. Some aides said Obaseki believed that it was wrong to allow non-state actors to collect government revenue. The decision to sack private revenue collectors came as a shock as revenue agents were party chieftains and regarded as untouchable.

    Besides, former Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s efforts to stop illegal levies and taxes, trading on the walkways, activities of thugs did not achieve much results. As at the time Oshiomhole left power, traders and commercial drivers groaned daily as they were made to pay all kinds of levies that ended up in private pockets.

    Commercial bus drivers were supposed to pay official taxes of N400 daily, which is broken down to N200 for the state government and N200 to local government coffers while traders in various markets were supposed to pay about N200 daily, including environmental fees. But, commercials drivers were made pay between N1000 and N3000 daily, excluding payment for feeding of the park chairmen and Secretaries while traders paid over N1000 daily to different thugs whereas only N60 was remitted to the local government coffers.

    The management of Okomu Oil Plc in Ovia South West local government and other companies had complained about the multiple levies its suppliers are subjected to pay to the revenue collectors. Clashes between revenue agents were recorded in 2014 and 2015 each time  the state government attempted to stop them. In fact, issues of alleged multiple taxation almost made the APC lost the September 28 governorship election.

    On January 1, Obaseki showed his mien when he delivered a new year package to thugs and private tax collectors. He announced a ban on all forms of revenue collection in the state and cancelled all revenue contracts local government entered into with privates tax collectors. Obaseki said only state and local government employees would be collecting levies or taxes.

    Obaseki’s action has been welcomed as a brave move. Traders now resist attempts by thugs to force them to pay. Commercial drivers have also stopped payment, unlike before when officials of the Road Transport Employers Association (RTEAN) would be claiming to be collecting union dues.

    Obaseki has embarked on massive road rehabilitation through the Edo State Employment and Expenditure for Result (SEEFOR). Roads rehabilitated and reconstructed are Evbiemwen street, Ogbelaka street, Cooke Road, James Watt, Okhoro-Aghahowa street, Reuben Agho street, Aigalegbe street-Isihor from New Lagos and roads linking Oko Central and Upper Adesuwa. Obaseki has given the contractors January 31 deadline to complete the rehabilitation.

    The Government House mechanic workshop that used to be desolate is now a beehive of activities as Obaseki engaged the services female mechanics headed by Sandra Aguebor to repair and fix government vehicles. A visit to the workshop showed that government vehicles that have been abandoned over minor faults were being fixed.

    An action of Obaseki that shocked many APC supporters was the arrest and subsequent remand of the Youth Leader of the APC, Comrade Osakpamwan Eriyo and Oredo Ward 3 Vice Chairman, Sunday Osaguana. Obaseki did not directly order the arrest of the two APC chieftains but party supporters expected him to intervene and stop their arraignment.

    Last week, Comrade Eriyo, who doubles as the Chairman of RTEAN, and some executive members of the APC were sacked and replaced at a meeting of party leaders in Oredo local government. The Oredo APC leaders it said was to instill party discipline and and party supremacy.

    A social critic, Igbotako Nowinta, said time will tell if Obaseki would be able to do away with those he termed “political ‘leopards’ that have remained unchangeable and an albatross on the neck of the key political players since 2007?”

    His words: “Obaseki, who was part of the Oshiomhole administration, as the leader of the ‘Economic Team,’ and who is the greatest beneficiary of Oshiomhole’s political gifts, has banned the activities of the private tax collectors in the state.

    “Is this guy serious? Is he intelligent and tactical, given the fact that the crowd being controlled by the former private tax collectors played a significant role practically and financially in ensuring that he was elected?

    “It is being argued in many quarters that a man like Godwin Obaseki who came from the blues politically and is still facing a yet to be decided fate, courtesy the on-going tribunal matters will not have the courage or political will to force through his proposed tax reform? The idea to sanitize the tax regime in the state is laudable and long overdue. Can Obaseki do the impossiblea? Is he ready to fight very dirty early in the day, even to deal with those Adams Oshiomhole could not cut off politically?”

  • Can anything good ever come out of politics?

    Can anything good ever come out of politics?

    I admit that I have raised a loaded question, with no expectation of a satisfactory answer, a candid expression of my frustration with politics of self-interest parading as anything but.

    Politics is the institution for managing the affairs of a community for the well-being of its people. As such, it is a noble venture. As the political community is the highest organisation, politics is conceptualised as the highest institution worthy only of selfless patriots.

    There is a good reason for that characterisation. A community is a close-knit entity with a common purpose and a sense of history that binds it to the past and links it to a hopeful future. Active agents on its political scene come and go, but they share a common objective of contributing their quota to the progressive transformation of the community. Their pride is in the sacrifice they make for the community, even when they have little or nothing to show for themselves.

    An early documented intimation of this conception of politics came from Aristotle for whom politics is the highest calling and politicians have the noblest assignment of framing the constitutional order of the political community, the goal of which is the good life of citizens. Note the characterisation of the three elements: politics: the highest calling; politician: with a noble assignment; political community: with the goal of good life of citizens.

    If the good life of citizens is the goal of the political community, it makes sense that the institution established for achieving it must be of the highest ranking, and active agents in that institution with the responsibility for achieving the good life for citizens must be deemed as having a noble assignment. In that regard, the question “can anything good ever come out of politics?” would make no sense. The fact that this question makes sense is, therefore, a challenge to the characterisation in question.

    Does the political community exist to promote the good life of citizens? Think of the foundation of local communities, from family to village to city. Chief Awolowo got it exactly right in People’s Republic. Every family wants the best for its members, and it must be assumed that when they join other families to form the nucleus of a state, they do not give up the goal of seeking the good life for their people. Therefore, a political community can be assumed to be justified because it seeks the good of its citizens.

    If the above makes sense, then it is reasonable to claim that the institution established for the accomplishment of the goal is of the highest ranking. What is devoted to benefiting the entire community and prioritising the needs to be pursued for members is certainly a higher order than that which aims at the good of a section.

    It must also follow that the group of citizens who take on the responsibility for the achievement and realisation of the goal for the people have a noble assignment. Politicians are a different breed in the positive way. They frame the constitutional order that makes possible the seeking of the good life and its achievement.

    Something is not right! The above is not the reality that stares us in the face. The political community that we know does not seek the good life of its citizens. Politics as we know it does not appear to be the highest calling. Indeed, it is one of the most debased of any calling, which is why many good people find it nauseating and repugnant. And while it may still be a noble assignment to fashion the constitutional order for a people, it has evolved into a vile and base task in the hands of political charlatans.

    What has changed then and since when? At the family and village levels, the political goal of the good life predominates as the community identifies the key actors who take the assignment seriously. With the combination of villages, the understanding of the good life gets murky, interests clash, and there need to be negotiations and compromises. Intrigues set in and the process of debasement follows in short order.

    With the combination of tribes and tongues, the escalation and intensification of tension and anxiety over the understanding of the good life and its requirements is inescapable. Amid such a heightened sense of expediency, various characters of dubious integrity are catapulted onto the stage of politics with varieties of motivations and questionable agenda, which may be far out of the field of any sense of the good life that any of the component communities may have set itself. In the circumstance, there is a clash of conceptions of the good life, not just among the component communities, but also among the individual politicians. This is the state of politics, politicians and political communities today, ours included.

    Can anything good come out of politics today then? Let us grant for discussion what is a contestable assertion: that we have come to an agreement on the good life for citizens of this country and it is encoded in the Constitution as Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. It is contestable to the extent that the 1999 Constitution itself is a work in progress still being litigated in the court of public opinion. To the credit of its framers, however, the bone of contention regarding the principles that are presented as the good life for citizens is that they are still not justiciable.

    So, we have the good life. But we still do not agree on the various aspects of how to achieve it for the people. What structure? What level of government is responsible for what? And this is where the betrayal of the idea of politics as the highest calling and politicians as having a noble assignment is most pungently demonstrated. The hustle and bustle of politics as we come to know it becomes glaring in the attempt to frame the constitutional framework for achieving the good life with politicians seeing themselves as representatives of sections whose interest must outweigh that of the collective. They hold the Aces because there is no real threat to the existence and prospering of their sections should the collective fail or disintegrate.

    There is a second level of hustle and bustle which further complicates the volatile political environment of differing tribes and tongues. Lone Ranger politicians with selfish agenda can negotiate across ethnic and national boundaries in a manner that benefits them but harms their immediate group. It is the nature of the contemporary politics. Some may find it a degenerate form of politics because of this; others may consider it intrinsic to the nature of politics. And it is the most problematic for the characterisation of politics as the highest calling and politicians as having a noble assignment.

    For in the case of politicians with agenda of self-interest, there is nothing ennobling unless there is, what is unlikely, a coincidence of self-interest of the individual with the good of the political community. A system can probably withstand the egoism of a few, but it will collapse under the weight of many self-conceited individuals hustling for their share of a national cake they are not inclined to bake. They move from party to party in search of spoils. They look to exploit precarious circumstances which they probably helped to instigate.

    About the clash of the conceptions of the good life sought by the various communities that come together voluntarily or by force, it is also inconceivable that something good can come out of the politics that ensues unless there is a strong determination for compromise to reach common grounds on fundamental issues.

    But when such compromises have been attained, they are products of elite self-interests parading as the common interest. In the end, the good life for citizens is stymied while the special interests of a few get promoted. So, some good does come out of politics when elite compromise unintentionally benefits the collective. If the compromise lasts, stability can be sustained. But the moment it collapses, the benefits to the collective is fatally assaulted.

  • Magu: Politics of vested interests

    Magu: Politics of vested interests

    The controversy surrounding the Senate’s rejection of Ibrahim Magu as substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is still raging like a wild fire in harmattan. Obviously, there are issues of particular interest in the ongoing saga which need to be properly addressed. Issues such as the legal implications of the decision of the Senate and how all parties should move forward in the circumstances are begging for attention.
    The uncertainty of Magu’s present status and the actual effect of the Senate decision as well as how the presidency must move forward, represent the biggest questions in this confirmation conundrum. The earlier some clarity can be reached, the sooner we can turn the page on this episode.
    Perhaps, the most pressing of these issues is the immediate clarification of Magu’s status following the Senate’s decision not to confirm him as substantive EFCC chairman. Although lawyers seem to always be in disagreement over legal issues, it appears that, in this particular instance, the debate is occasioned by a lacuna in the law concerning the position of acting chairman of the EFCC. Some leading lawyers like J.B Daudu, SAN, are of the opinion that Magu’s power to act as chairman of the EFCC under any capacity, was terminated once the Senate rejected his confirmation as substantive chairman. In Daudu’s view, any continued engagement by Magu as acting chairman is an illegality and a new acting chairman ought to have emerged immediately following his rejection.
    Another eminent legal mind, Prof. Itse Sagay who heads President Buhari’s advisory committee on the war against corruption, has given a completely different interpretation. He stated that Magu can serve on as chairman at the President’s pleasure. Some others have said that the President can ignore the Senate altogether and keep Magu as substantive chairman, regardless of their decision.
    The EFCC Establishment Act 2004 expressly provides that the chairman of the EFCC has to be confirmed by the Senate. Section 2 (3) of the Act provides that the ‘’Chairman and members of the Commission other than ex-officio members shall be appointed by the President and (the) appointment shall be subject to the confirmation of the Senate”. There is no mistaking the fact that the Act makes the Senate confirmation a condition precedent to the legal appointment of a chairman of the EFCC. What the Act does not state, however, is the procedure for appointing an acting chairman, or how long a person may continue as an acting chairman before a substantive chairman is appointed or confirmed.
    Unlike the provision of section 231 (5) of the 1999 constitution (as amended) for example, regarding acting Chief Justices of Nigeria and the three-month maximum period a person shall act in that role, there is no such provision in the EFCC Act or anywhere else concerning acting chairmen of the EFCC. As such, appointments or discontinuance of the functions of acting chairmen of the EFCC is exclusively at the President’s discretion as the appointing authority. In this case, the Senate has rejected Magu as substantive chairman, which leaves the commission in need of someone to continue to act until a time when a decision can be made about a substantive chairman.
    As such, if the President wishes to keep Magu on in his acting capacity until there is a resolution or a new appointee, he would be doing so within the law. Section 11 (1) (c) (ii) of the Interpretation Act states that the power of an appointing authority also includes power to appoint a person to act in place of a substantive appointee “…during such time as is considered expedient by the (appointing) authority…”. The issue is quite clear. Until the President says otherwise, it is reasonably deducible that the President’s already appointed acting chairman (Magu) will continue in that capacity.
    The Senate cannot willy-nilly decline to confirm an appointee. It has to give reasons for the decision. We need to examine the reasonability and weight of the reason for the rejection. The Senate based its decision on a report by the Department of State Security, DSS, adjudging Magu as lacking in integrity for the role he was picked for. Truly, the DSS ought to provide security clearance for nominees and appointees for public office by way of reports revealing anything of interest that the Senate ought to know about a nominee or appointee. What the DSS ought not to do is to reach any conclusions or pass any “verdicts” as it appears to have done in this case. It may very well make recommendations, but the conclusions and decisions ought to be left to the Senate. In this case, the Senate’s decision cannot be sustained by the substance, if any, of the report it relied on.
    As if the report of the DSS declaring Magu unfit for the office of EFCC chairman was not fishy enough, it also turned out that there exists an almost identical report by the same DSS addressed to the Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters. The only difference is that the DSS recommendation in that report favoured the confirmation of Magu regardless of its findings due to his excellent performance.
    The Senate was in receipt of the two contradictory DSS reports. How then can the Senate justify its decision one way or the other, in the face of contradictory reports? It does not appear that the Senate ever pressed the DSS for explanations for the contradictory reports as should have been the case. Instead, the senators capitalised and made the decision which may have been most favourable to them and their ways. It has been reported that the Senate’s decision not to confirm Magu was, in fact, because of the contradiction, not despite it. In any case, there is room to make amend.
    Furthermore, one can say Magu has been cleared of the allegations raised in the report, such as the issue of withholding sensitive commission documents back in 2008. He has since received promotions and been reassigned to the commission, demonstrating an acceptance of his explanations at the time. The very act of digging up this old, settled bone, casts doubts on the motive of the DSS and the Senate that based their rejection on the resultant report(s). The allegation in the report of accepting payments for his accommodation from one Commodore Umar Mohammed, who is being investigated, has also been debunked by documentary evidence that shows that the Federal Capital Territory administration was responsible for the payments.
    It is also noteworthy that the same Umar Mohammed was closely associated with the President himself and appointed to some of the President’s committees. Surely, the President too must have integrity issues for having ever associated with the man. This is exactly the reasoning of the DSS in citing Magu’s flying in Umar’s private plane as evidence of an integrity challenge even as investigations of Umar Mohammed are only a recent development.
    All in all, the entire episode smacks of a shoddily put together operation to discredit Magu and get him out of the way. It is left now for the Senate and presidency to step back and approach the issue properly. The starting point should be a formal communication by the Senate to the presidency stating its decision and the reason for it clearly. The existence of the contradictory reports alone gives the presidency a ground to write back, questioning the decision. The Senate and/or the presidency, also needs to task the DSS to explain the contradictory reports, directing that a proper final assessment and report be forwarded, putting in mind, the recent developments and evidence concerning the allegations in the initial report(s).
    Certainly, both the DSS and the Senate must have bungled this confirmation episode. Nothing stops the resubmission of Magu’s name after the present “issues” have been addressed. The people are no longer sitting aloof with the wool over their eyes. We are all watching and keen to see that things are done right and an end is put to the politics of vested interests and personal vendettas.